Railway car side wall construction



Dec. 30,1941. w CLARKE 2,268,188

RAILWAY CAR SIDE WALL CONSTRUCTION Filed Nov. 18, 1939 J \X&\

i i 30 i is I 6 l g ..--'L INVENTOR 46;)? h/U/ank Patented Dec. 30, 1941 answer can sum w'au. oossrrwc'no Allen W. Clarke, St. Charles, Ma, assignor to American Car and Foundry Company, New York, N. Y a corporation of New Jersey Application November mi 1939. Serial No. 305,01:

Claims. (01. 105-401) This inventionvrelates to side wall constructions in general and in particular to such constructions for use on railway passenger cars of the light weight type.

As first constructed railway cars utilized the lmderframe as the sole load carrying member; later as steel cars came into use the underframe and skeleton body frame were made to act together to carry the load, but in order for a car to have minimum weight it is necessary that every part possible cooperate with other parts of the car frame to support the load. It ls also extremely necessary that the railway car have a pleasing appearance and that the side walls do not have buckles therein, at least buckles which are apparent to the casual observer. In recent years certain passenger cars of the light weight type have been built in which the underframe and skeleton body frame worked together to carry the load exactly as in the original steel car construction, but in order to save weight the side walls and roofs were made of extremely thin metal corrugated to give it lateral stiffness, but this thin corrugated metal shell performed no useful function other than inclosing the body. In attempting to make light weight cars in which the sheathing or covering cooperated with the skeleton frame and underframe to carry the car, it was found impossible for the steel mills to roll wide strips of thin metal in any appreciable length and with any degree of accuracy. In other words, any wide strip of thin metal rolled by the mills contains a large number of buckles or irregularities in the metal plate and certain of these buckles are aggravated when placed on the car structure and when they assume their proportion of the load. It was also found in attempting to utilize large sheets that they could not be secured to the car skeleton frame without use of rivets or extremely expensive welding tools. It is an object, therefore, of the present invention to construct a'car side wall by spot welding narrow strips of relatively thin metal together and to' the framing in such a manner that the plates or strips will function in cooperation with the framing members to produce a girder wall.

A further object of the invention is the con struction of a railway car side wall from narrow strips of relatively thin metal spot welded to the framing by means of ordinary shallow gap welding tools, thereby eliminating the use of special, expensive welding equipment.

A still further object of the invention is the construction of a railway car side wall from narrow strips of relatively thin metal, each having a comparativelysmall corrugation pressed therein to localize any-buckles that may develop due to stresses arising'during construction or use of the car.

-A yet further object of the invention is the construction of a railway car girder side wall from a plurality of spaced parallel plane sheets of metal joined together by a slightly flexible corrugation capable of absorbing stresses tending to distort the sheets.

These and other objects of the invention will be apparentto persons skilled in the art from a study of the following description and accompanying drawing, in which Figure 1 is a sectional view through one side of the improved railway car:

Fig. 2 is a partial plan view of a portion of the car side wall;

Fig. 3 is a sectional view taken substantially on line I3 of Fig. 2 and showing the post construction;

Fig. 4 is a sectional view taken substantially on line 4-4 of Fig, 2 and disclosing the belt rail construction, 'and Fig. 5 is a sectional view taken substantially on line 5-5 of Fig. 2 and disclosing the construction at the letterboard stiffener.

Referring now to the drawing in detail, it will be seen that the railway car is provided with the customary Z-bar side sill 2 attached to the cross bearers 4 and with the roof 6 secured to carlines 8; which in turn are tied together by roof sub-assembly plate angle Ill.

The side wall is preferably constructed as a unit and attached to the pre-fabricated underframe,v after which the pre-assembled roof unit is placed in position and secured to the side wall. As disclosed in the drawing,the side wall subassembly consists-of lower angle l2 adapted to be attached to and form part of the side sill, while angle i4 is carried at the upper edge of the side wall and is adapted to be attached to and form part of the plate of the car, thus in the fully assembled condition the. side sills and plate constitute the lower and upper chords of the girder side wall construction. The top and bottom chords are connected together by continuous flanged J-posts, one of which is clearly shown in Fig. 3, having inner flange l6, web I8 positioned at right angles to the side wall, and flange 20 to which the side wall can be attached and which flange terminates in a reflanged portion 22; The posts are braced intermediate their so ends by a belt rail also of flanged ,J-construction (Fig. 4) and having its flange 24, web 26, outer flange 28 and reflange 30 securely fastened to the posts by any suitable means, such as welding. In other words, the flanged J belt rails are applied in short lengths between the posts but when secured in position form a continuous belt rail integral with the side posts. The side posts are also braced by means of short letterboard stiffeners extending between the posts and secured thereto by any suitable means, such as welding, thereby forming an upper continuous brace between the posts from end to end of the car. This letterboard stiffener, as shown more clearly in Fig. 5, is of flanged channel construction, having lower flange 32, web 34, upper flange 36 and reflange 38. These various flanges and web are, as previously stated, securely fastened to the posts by any suitable means, such as welding, and the web portion extends substantially vertical for attachment of the side wall sheets.

The side wall sheathing or covering is formed of a plurality of narrow strips of relativelythin metal and the three lower strips, designated by numeral Land the two uppermost strips, designated by numeral 42, preferably extend continuously from end to end of the car; that is, they may extend continuously without interruption or they may be secured together by vertical butt weld 44, thus permitting the use of shorter lengths, but in any case, they constitute continuousstrips extending from end to end of the car. Thespace intermediate the upper and lower continuous strips is occupied by a plurality of strips,

designated by numeral 46, and these strips will be of varying length dependent upon the placement of the window openings W. Each of the strips, regardless of its location in the side wall structure, is formed with a main plane body portion 50 which is spot welded or otherwise secured to the flange 20 of the vertical posts, and certain of the strips have this plane portion also secured tothe web 34 of the letterboard stiffener and to the flange 28 of the belt rail. All of the strips, with the exception of the lowermost strip, have a small corrugation 52 formed therein adjacent the lower edge but above the edge in order to provide ashort flange 54 which in reality is a continuation of the plane body portion of the strip. Also each of the strips, with the exception of the uppermost strip, has its top edge stiffened by turning a flange 56 outwardly from the main plane, thereby giving a strip which may be more readily handled and which will have a slightly greater stiffness when applied to the car and can function more efliciently as an element of the girder side wall. As is clearly shown in Figs. 1, 4 and 5 the strips are secured together by spot welding or' otherwise securing short flange 54 of each to the plane body portion of the next lower strip and with the flange 56 covered by the horizontal corrugation 52 but out of contact therewith. The lower edge of the lowermost strip and the upper edge of the uppermost strip are, of course, spot welded or otherwise attached to the angles l2 and I4 respectively and in case the roof sheets are attached to the side wall construction by riveting, then such rivets are preferably covered by means of a snap-on type of moulding 58.

It will be seen, therefore, that the side wall construction is formed by upper and lower chords joined together by continuous posts and braced by the belt rail and letterboard stiifener and all tied together by means of a plurality of plane strips of metal which may be considered structurally as being spaced apart. It will be evident that this is true since the plane body portions 50 of the strips are rigidly secured to the skeleton frame of the side wall but are of themselves connected together by means of the corrugated portion 52, thus any buckles that may appear in one plane body portion will be absorbed by the adjacent corrugations and cannot distort the next adjacent flat body portions. In other words, the side wall is a girder construction made by means of a plurality of plane strips flexibly connected together to eliminate, or at least localize, any distorting stresses appearing in any strip.

While the improved construction has been described more or less in detail. it is obvious that various modifications and rearrangements of parts are contemplated as will fall within the scope of the appended claims defining my invention.

What is claimed is:

l. A girder side wall construction for railway cars comprising a skeleton frame consisting of upper and lower chords connected together by substantially vertical posts, and a web secured to the skeleton frame and consisting of a plurality of metal strips each having a main plane surface spaced edgewise from the corresponding surface of the adjacent strips, a stiffening flange formed on one edge of each strip, and a substantially horizontal corrugation formed adjacent the other edge thereof and forming the sole connection between the adjacent edge portions of the plane surfaces of adjacent strips intermediate the posts, said corrugation overlapping and housing the flange of said adjacent strip and free of direct connection thereto.

2. A girder wall construction for railway cars comprising a skeleton frame consisting of upper and lower chords connected together by substantially vertical posts, and a web secured to the skeleton frame and comprising a plurality of metal strips each having a main plane surface spaced edgewise from the corresponding surface of the adjacent strips, substantially horizontal corrugations formed in one edge portion of said strips and comprising the sole connection between the adjacent edge portions of adjacent strips intermediate the posts, one edge of each of said strips terminating on the inside of and between th margins of adjacent corrugations and including a reinforcement.

I 3. A girder side wall construction for railway cars comprising a skeleton frame consisting of upper and lower chords connected by substantially vertical posts, and a web rigidly secured to the skeleton frame, said web including a, plurality of metal strips each having a substantially plane main area and a flanged corrugation adjacent an edge thereof for flexibly connecting with the adjacent strip, said adjacent strip having a reinforced edgeportion arranged on the inside and between the margins of the corrugations and forming a reinforcing element for the connected parts.

4. A' girder side wall construction for railway cars comprising a skeleton frame consisting of upper and lower chords connected together by substantially vertical post members braced by belt rail and letterhead stiffener members, and a web rigidly secured to all members of the skeleton frame, said web consisting in part of a-pZurality of metal strips each having a substantially plane main area secured to the skeleton frame in edgewise spaced relation to the'main area of an adjoining strip and being joined to the main tion having a connecting edge portion, plane surfaces connecting the corrugations with the reinforced edge portions and the connecting edge portion of the corrugation being secured to the outer side of the plane surface of the adjacent strip whereby the reinforced edge portion is confined within th margins of the corrugations.

ALLEN W. CLARKE. 

